Life these days has become so hectic that it’s very easy for us to get caught up in just trying to “survive” each day. By “surviving” we’re not referring to making sure we have something to eat and drink each day; “surviving” has become so much more complicated than that. For many people, “surviving” a day means being able to accomplish what others expect of them — “others” being your employer, your partner, children, parents, friends, and so on.

While there’s nothing wrong with meeting others’ expectations, the danger in getting too pre-occupied with doing so, you begin to lose track of the most important person in the world: ME, …… I mean YOU!

Keep in mind that you’re trying to meet other people’s expectations either because these people are instrumental in the goals you want to accomplish (such as your employer who plays the lead part in your career and financials) or because they are people you care about (such as family and friends). In both cases, you need to make sure that you’re fully armed and equipped, so that you have a lot of yourself to share with others.

So here are 8 simple self-improvement habits that you can do each day to enrich yourself in four major areas of your life:

8 Simple Daily Habits That Will Definitely Improve Your Life

MENTAL SELF IMPROVEMENT

1. Complete a challenging puzzle or solve a challenging problem early in the day.
 Apart from recent findings linking it to staving off ageing-related dementia, doing a mental puzzle early in the day benefits the mind like exercise benefits the body; it’s a strengthening workout, which, in the case of a mental puzzle completed early in the day, keeps the mind sharp and warms it up to prepare it to face the cognitive rigours everyone deals with daily.

There are many apps or websites that you can bookmark or download to keep your brain ticking along

2. Get moving on something you’ve always wanted to learn.
 Whether it be knitting, baking, or computer programming, there’s always something you’ve always wanted to learn but have never found the time for because of your daily preoccupations. Well, you don’t need to wait for your next vacation just to get started on learning a new skill. Instead, you can learn it a little each day by slowly reading a book on it or enrolling in an online course that allows you to work at your own pace.

What’s important is that you’re progressing a little each time towards a new skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire. Before you know it, you’ve learned something you’ve always wanted to, and it’s time to move on to the next learning goal for your continued self-improvement. You can start with as little as ten minutes a day and build up.

PHYSICAL SELF IMPROVEMENT

3. Do a little resistance exercise.
 Resistance exercise is any physical activity that involves a significant amount of exertion by your muscles. While cardiovascular exercises like walking are certainly beneficial to the health, resistance exercises, even simple ones such as climbing up the stairs or doing push ups against a wall, have the added benefit of firming up your muscles and boosting your metabolism throughout the rest of the day — certainly benefiting your health and even your appearance.

4. Replace unhealthy foods with your favourite fruits and vegetables.
 Sometimes, leaving out unhealthy foods from your diet seems painful because the healthy alternatives just don’t seem to compare in flavour. But surely, you have your own favourite fruits and vegetables, so why not make an effort to use them to replace the unhealthy foods in your diet?

For example, replace a bag of chips with a bowl of baked carrot sticks topped with fat-free cheese. Absolutely delicious!

A great rule I learned years ago is that you eat clean and healthy for six days and on your seventh day, you can choose to eat whatever you want. There are literally no limitations. Chocolate and pizza all day? Go for it. Just make sure to eat clean the other six days.

EMOTIONAL SELF IMPROVEMENT

5. Let someone know that they’re doing good.
 There’s hardly anything that compares with sharing positivity and reaping your own rewards from doing so. This is what letting someone know about the good that they’re doing does for others and perhaps, more importantly, for you.

And it doesn’t have to be big accomplishments. In fact, appreciating little things like a good meal prepared or a desk neatly arranged goes a long way in making someone feel good and making you realise how easy it is for you to contribute something positive to the world.

6. Smile when negative feelings are trying to take control of you.
Of course negative thoughts will try to creep into your mind daily — they’re normal. However, they don’t have to consume you and take over your mood for the whole day.

Often, the simple act of smiling, even forcing yourself to smile, brings positive thoughts to the surface and allows you to get back to your pleasant and most productive you.

SPIRITUAL SELF IMPROVEMENT

7. Start your day by thinking about one good thing you can do for the day.
 People often forget just how easy and important it is to do good. For example, it doesn’t take a lot of effort at all to segregate trash so that whatever can be recycled can be reused and not add to the world’s growing waste management problem. But why is it that so few people get around to starting the habit?

Usually, it’s just a matter of deciding to do good, and that’s what developing the habit of identifying a good deed to do each day fosters.

8. End your day by writing down one thing you were thankful for.
 The line “It’s not about having what you want, but wanting what you have” says it all. Very often, the feeling of being unsatisfied with what you have is brought about by not realising how valuable the things in your life already are.

If you make it a habit to write down one thing you’re thankful for each day, at that particular moment when you’re feeling unhappy or disappointed, glancing through your “grateful list” will uplift you and keep you solidly on the road to positivity and further self-improvement.

As you can see, most of these can take literally a couple of minutes per day and can have a great impact on your life. Give them a try and see the difference they make.